Lessons of Saji Crossroad
by Aethra Caelis
Summary: Musings and thoughts of a background-turned-main character; a collection of drabbles and one-shots on Saji Crossroad and the people around him.
1. Static

Disclaimer: _Gundam 00_ characters and related indicia © Bandai Entertainment, Sunrise.

_Written back in September 23, 2008, this is a ficlet in response to a prompt at the Mechaphiles Forum, "Comfortable silence... or the lack of it." And also, methinks Saji needs a little more love. _^_^

**Static**

_**a Gundam 00 fanfic by Cielo**_

Saji Crossroad did not know many things. He took life in stride as he and his sister, Kinue, looked after themselves after their parents died -- at this, he learned the true meaning of "hard work" and how it "pays off" at an early age.

Not that it fazed him. As long as Kinue had her job at the news agency, as long has he was keeping up with his engineering scholarship while earning his keep as a pizza delivery boy, all was well. It was simple maths -- hard work paying off, after all. Everything else, was in the background -- like elevator music.

But there were a few things that he learned to pay attention to, to his dismay, too late.

"Terrorism," for him, was confined to the headlines -- something that he was supposed to study, reflect upon, write a paper & make reports on and work on to get a good grade. That was, of course, until an exploding bus took lives right before his very eyes; lives he had seen so carefree -- and quite as ignorant as he was -- just for a second, now gone.

"Love" and "affection" were trivial. He could not tell for himself why he was with Louise Halevy in the first place. He did not bother trying to figure out why he would bend over backwards for this blond European "princess." He never thought that he would long for her cheery laugh, her bright smile, her very animated mobile messages, and actually having her by his side until she said goodbye.

Then there was Kinue, brutally taken from him. If Fate had pulled the rug from under his feet with Louise's break-up, then Death followed up with a swift and hard kick in the gut, laughing, spitting at his face. Kinue was the only family he had left, the only face he had come home to...

Despite the high definition TV switched on at an uncharacteristically loud volume, watching the unified attack against the Gundams, he heard nothing, saw nothing. His mind was a void, his heart a desert of nothingness. All was gone, taken away from him -- never had there been so much noise, but all he could hear was static.


	2. Seasons

Disclaimer: _Gundam 00_ characters and related indicia © Bandai Entertainment, Sunrise.

_Written last December 12, 2008, this is a ficlet in response to a prompt at the Mechaphiles Forum, "Cold Metal," and intended to go hand-in-hand with Mangaka-chan's Louise-centric ficlet, bearing the prompt's title.  
_

**Seasons**_**  
a Gundam 00 fanfic by Cielo**_

_  
Spring _

2307-- Saji was off to a prestigious engineering college. On a scholarship to boot. He stretched his arms upward as he walked into the college's complex. The weather was perfect -- sunshine on his face with a cool breeze carrying stray sakura blossoms from a nearby cherry tree. New beginnings, new opportunities -- life couldn't be any better.

_  
Summer _

... And there she was; her long golden hair the perfect depiction of everything Louise Halevy is: a bright girl, with a fiery personality; desires and ambition with the sky as the limit; he was unconsciously drawn to her like a very willing moth to a flame, and yet he lives to tell the tale. Despite her seeming supercilious character, she had a heart of gold -- an unexposed quality of hers that won him over.

_  
Autumn_

Saji barely noticed the chill in the evening air rise a notch -- sunshine in his mind and a sparrow's song in his heart -- as he went about his part-time job as a pizza delivery boy. He had never seen the sky over a small town in Spain struck down by elusive red beams of light, nor the rain as it washed away scarlet tinted leaves down a gutter of Tokyo's sidewalk.

_  
Winter_

The high-class private hospital prided itself for keeping its patients and visitors as comfortable as possible. But the corridor in which he fell on his knees chilled him to the bone; and the rings preciously kept in their pristine blue velvet box, clutched in his shaking grasp, will never feel the warmth of loving hands.


End file.
